BEIJING: China’s wheat imports in July edged up 0.01% year on year but fell 36% month on month to 377,737 mt, data released Wednesday by the Chinese Customs Information Center in Hong Kong showed.
Wheat imports over January-July stood at 2,081,152 mt, up 22.72% year on year, driven by demand for high and lower gluten wheat to make premium and specialty flour.
Australian wheat continued to lead the way, accounting for 44.43% of the imports over January-July. However, the imports fell 46.98% month on month and 48.4% year on year to 115,634 mt. Traders attributed the fall in wheat imports to uncompetitive prices.
Imports from Canada dropped to 115,461 mt in July from 166,622 mt in June, but more than doubled year on year. Traders said the rise was due to competitive prices amid higher production in the 2015-2016 harvest season.
Wheat shipments from Kazakhstan fell 47.58% from June and 27.4% year on year to 14,883 mt.
Meanwhile, wheat imports from the US dropped 7.19% month on month to 59,824 mt in July, but was up from just 3,255 mt a year earlier, amid high stocks.
China’s corn imports in July dropped 56.7% month on month to 28,985 mt as the government tries to reduce its stocks.
Barley imports fell 25.2% month on month to 360,296 mt, while sorghum shipments were down 26.6%.
Imports of distilled dried grain, a protein rich by-product of corn, were up 60.3% month on month amid strong demand from the animal feed industry.
